They should call it "RateImperialStout" instead of "RateBeer"It is a nice list though.

Man. You really nailed that! Seems like RIS is all a lot of these "beer snobs" care about.

And Nate, I didn't mean to take anything away from your friend. While I haven't had his beers there are a lot of great and deserving breweries in the list that should be in the top 5 or 10 that aren't.

It should be titled "The World's Best Breweries According to American Beer Snobs".I think I have some Stillwater beer I picked up in Alabama, I'll check when I get home. As for your buddy making the list that's great that american beer drinkers think highly of the brewery. He's in very good company.

Number of breweries: 123Capita per brewery: 54,671Production in 2010: 4.15 million barrelsConsumed per capita in 2010: 19.1 gallons

Bud and Coors aren't brewed here and much of Washington doesn't seem to mind. Craft beer alone holds 25.5% of the beer market in the Seattle area, according to Beer Marketer's Insights, which is more than MillerCoors' 25.3% share and A-B's 23.8%.

In Seattle, craft also gained 3 share of $$ to 25.5, and imports down double digits on volume, but retained 20 share of $$. MC had 25.3 share of $$ in Seattle, compared to AB's 23.8. They lost 2 share between 'em. MC volume down 5% in Seattle supers, while AB down 9%. Perhaps AB and MC trends not quite as bad in other channels (INSIGHTS doesn't have that data), but these #s paint fascinating picture of what AB/MC now face in advanced urban coastal markets: declining clout in a declining mkt while consumers embrace more and more choice.

So imports aren't included. Between AB, MC, imports, and craft that's ~95%. I don't know what the rest is.